Abingdonian 2020

39 www.abingdon.org.uk Lent Term Chapel Choir Back at the start of my first year at Abingdon School, someone recommended that I joined the Chapel Choir. So I came along to a rehearsal and a few weeks later, I attended my first Evensong at one of the Oxford colleges. From that point on, I was hooked. We went to the Royal Albert Hall to sing a scratch Messiah just before Christmas that year. Looking back, I think that hitting the high notes in Handel’s famous ‘Hallelujah’ was one of my proudest moments in Chapel Choir. Between then and now, I have had many other opportunities to visit amazing places with Chapel Choir. Another one of my proudest moments was when I sang the first verse of “Once in Royal David’s City’ at the Parents’ and Boarders’ Carol Concert this year. I have thoroughly enjoyed all my time in Chapel Choir over the last two years, and I am looking forward to many great performances in the future. Daniel Chamberlin, 2PCWM I joined Chapel Choir in the third year and from that point onwards it has been one of my favourite Other Half activities. One of my most memorable and enjoyable experiences was when the Chapel Choir performed in the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Scratch Youth Messiah. I really enjoyed singing as part of a larger choir accompanied by a professional orchestra. This combined with the acoustics resulted in a magnificent sound and one which I will remember for a long time. Another highlight of my time in Chapel Choir was the annual visits and performances at the Mercers Guild. It was always great to perform for such a distinguished company and I feel that the choir often stepped up and performed some of their best work there despite the somewhat challenging singing arrangements and often shortage of time to rehearse there. This year in addition to the Mercers Guild we also visited Merton College and Coventry Cathedral. Our performance at Merton was one of the best of my time in Chapel Choir and overall it was a great experience. We were given a tour of Oxford’s oldest college and were especially lucky to be performing with the Merton Chapel Choir. This was great as it gave us an experience of the quality of a university choir which helped elevate our own singing. Having performed at Coventry Cathedral multiple times I can say that it has the most striking stained glass windows of any cathedral I have visited with the choir. This in combination with the echoing acoustic results in a uniquely enjoyable singing environment. Overall my time in Chapel Choir has provided me with some of my favourite memories whilst at Abingdon and I would highly recommend it to any budding singers. Oliver Elly, 7DTP